Tuesday, 13 December 2016

Review of One Dark Lie by Clare Chase - 5**Blurb:The truth can hurt, and sometimes it leads to murder …After becoming embroiled in a murder investigation, Nate Bastable and Ruby Fawcett have decided to opt for the quiet life. But crime has a habit of following them around.

When her work dries up, Ruby finds herself accepting a job researching and writing about Diana Patrick-John, a colourful and enigmatic Cambridge academic. Simple enough. But then there’s the small fact that Diana was found dead in suspicious circumstances in her home – the very place where Ruby has now been invited to stay.

As she begins to uncover Diana’s secret life, Ruby’s sleuthing instinct kicks in, leaving her open to danger and retribution. But can she rely on Nate to support her? Especially when his behaviour has become increasingly distant and strange, almost as though he had something to hide …

From Death by Choc Lit – gripping edge of your seat reads.

Review:

This is the 3rd book in the London & Cambridge Mysteries series. It follows on from A Stranger's House (which is also brilliant) but can be read as a standalone.

Ruby takes a job writing about Diana, a member of the Cambridge elite. Diana's brother asks her to do it and sets some very stringent guidelines. However, Ruby being Ruby, follows her nose into the mystery of Diana's suspicious death.

In the meantime, Nate is closing in on the gangster whom he suspects killed his sister - but he is still working out whether it was him or his sister that was the target.

I LOVE Clare's books! And this one was just as good as the others. She keeps you guessing right to the end and a couple of red herrings in this one really confused me - in a good way!

The characters are believable and I love Ruby's dogged determination. The plot is complicated enough to keep your interest all the way through and the flashes of humour certainly help to relieve the tension.

Saturday, 10 December 2016

And now for something a little different......I reviewed Little Girl Lost by Janet Gover a while ago when the Kindle edition was released. Well, the paperback is now out so I'm celebrating that with an extract focussing on one of the characters - Sarah Travers.Enjoy!

Meet a character: Little
Girl Lost by Janet Gover

Janet Gover’s new Coorah
Creek novel is now available to purchase in paperback. To celebrate we’ll be
introducing you to characters from the book. Today on Annie’s Book Corner, you
can ‘meet’ Sarah Travers.

Sarah is a shopkeeper’s daughter who grew up in Coorah Creek and she’s just
returned home after finishing her college degree. There’s bad news waiting for
her, and as she struggles with her father’s failing health, part of her longs
for a simpler, happier time.

Sarah started
sorting the contents of some half empty boxes, setting aside new stock to go on
the shelves, and stacking the rest for later use. As she did, she noticed a
small cardboard box pushed to the back of a high shelf. The sides of the box
were battered and stained and very dusty. That box had not moved in a long
time. Sarah stood on a wooden crate and reached to retrieve it. She smiled as
she realised it was the box that had once contained her first pair of heeled
shoes: some sandals she had been given for her twelfth birthday.

Deeply curious, she sat on the crate
and placed the shoebox on her lap. Trying not to create a dust cloud, she
opened it. Inside she found the sort of accumulated nearly-useful things most
people put into small boxes and then forget. There was a key ring with a couple
of keys, although Sarah had no idea what they might open. There were a couple
of old pens, which would obviously no longer work. A pile of rubber bands had
more or less melted together and lay on top of an envelope that was old and
brittle and yellow and empty.

Sarah reached into the box and
retrieved the keys. She’d show them to her father before she threw them away.
Nothing else in the box looked like it was worth salvaging. She shuffled the
contents around a little, and the corner of an old photo appeared underneath the
envelope. She removed it and turned it to catch the light streaming through the
storeroom window.

The colours had faded over the
years, and the edges of the paper were curling, but the photograph clearly
showed a girl of about ten sitting behind the wheel of a big prime mover. Her
small hands gripped the big steering wheel tightly, but her feet were far too
short to reach the pedals. She was grinning widely as she strained to see
through the windscreen. Sitting beside her, his arm protectively around her shoulders
was a handsome young man. His hair was long and dark and slightly wavy. He was
smiling in a slightly bemused way.

Memories
of that day came flooding back, bringing a smile to her face. She’d had a
terrible crush on that driver. Pete, his name was. It was a moment of such
excitement to be lifted up by him and placed gently in the driver’s seat of his
truck. How far up she had felt. How very grown up. And how wonderful it had
felt to have Pete’s arm around her. To have his approval. Her father had ducked
back into the house and grabbed his cheap little camera to capture the moment.
They had kept the photograph on a corkboard at the back of the shop for a
while, before it got lost among the receipts and orders and notes. Strange that
it had ended up here.

It would have been different for
Pete, of course. To him it had no doubt been a little act of kindness to a
lonely girl in an isolated store at a tiny truck stop on his road. She doubted
that he would remember it now. She had forgotten all about it, until she saw
the photo. Briefly she wondered where Pete was. Was he still driving this same
route? Maybe he was the one who had stacked the boxes for her parents? If so,
it just went to show that he was – if not a knight in shining armour – a good
Samaritan at the very least. He was probably married now with a house full of
kids. As for her; she had an education and a degree that could take her away
from here. If she wanted to go. And right now, she didn’t. She couldn’t. She
wouldn’t leave her father. If she did, she might never …

She caught herself. No. She’d
promised her mother she wouldn’t say it. She wouldn’t even think the words.

There
were no knights in shining armour, but a positive attitude could make all the
difference to her father’s treatment. At least, that’s what people said. She
hoped they were right.

Blurb: When a little girl goes missing, an
entire town comes together to find her ...

When Tia Walsh rides into the
small town of Coorah Creek on a Harley-Davidson, Sergeant Max Delaney senses
that everything about her spells trouble. But Tia's trouble is not all of her
own making, and the dangerous past she tried to leave behind is hot on her
heels.

Sarah Travers has returned home
after three years of college to find that her parents have been keeping a
devastating secret. Her childhood crush, Pete Rankin, is facing his own
struggle with a harsh reality that will take him away from the girl and the
life that he loves.

Tia, Max, Sarah and Pete are all
trying to find their future, but when a little girl goes missing in the harsh
outback, nothing else matters except finding her safe ...

You can now
purchase Little Girl Lost in paperback. Click HERE for buying
options. For more on
Janet, follow her on Twitter: @janet_gover
Visit her website: www.janetgover.com